Flower Hotel Ulan Bator

... dry. UB is running out of water and it's population is booming. Rush hour and those in between, are a symphony of horns, over taking and general traffic chaos. <br><br>We only had 2 days and after our post train shower we hit the street, the city in places is crumbling but has oddly a newly opened Louis Vitton and empty Condo's on the outskirts that would suit Singapore, you could almost smell the bribery and corruption, when the ...

... are in desperate need of repair, with holes appearing every few meters.<br><br>The city does however have a very good feel to it. We visited the Intellectual Museum, which is full of wooden puzzles and chess sets a local Mongolian has created and carved (Tim - you would have loved it!) The afternoon was spent shopping and stocking up with some supplies for for the last leg of our train journey...

... ankle bones of sheep. These bones are used for many games, there are 4 viable sides, each representing either a horse, camel, goat or sheep.<br><br>For most of the day we were the only tourists there and has been an excellent time for us to relax. <br><br>After 2 nights we travelled back to UB to a 4* ish hotel. <br><br>The wind has now dropped and its very much warmer. <br><br>Tonight we board the train to Huehot, across the Chinese border into Inner Mongolia.

... back as much as I did, though I was a<br>little relieved to see that wasn't just me that found the saddle<br>unbearable. <br><br><br><br><br>We had a quick swim in the<br>river, and were surprised to discover that Bassan had apparently<br>never seen swimming before, despite having spent his whole life<br>within a mile of several good swimming rivers. He watched us eagerly<br>and feeling that we had to put on a performance did several loops<br>down the mini-rapids.<br ...

... at your hand and climb all over each other. Then they would randomly all decide to fly at the same time, almost to a point where you felt you were in a scene of "The Birds".<br> Anyways past the pigeons there was this small green temple, that still looked like nothing incredible. It was definitly not something I could see back at home, but not what I think of when I think of temples. There were also these small structures outside that had these large brass ...

... They had an impressive collection of dinosaur fossils and eggs unearthed from the Gobi; it was just a pity more of the signs weren&#8217;t in English. After our exhausting tour of the museum it was back to bed for another siesta. We only ventured out again for dinner and then crashed around eight.<br><br>Countryside tour (22 June &#8211; 25 June):<br><br>We booked a tour into the countryside through the guesthouse, around 9:00 we met our driver ...

... grandmothers, did some laundry and went to sleep. The next morning we caught a taxi over the Nairamdal buses that were bringing the next session in. We are currently doing check-ups with the doctor and everyone is getting settled. I&#8217;m excited and nervous at the same time on what this session will bring. Oh and I just found out the new president of Mongolia, he was just sworn in yesterday, his son is staying on the floor above me.

... French after having only 3 or 4 hours sleep. Pretty awesome mental gymnastics.<br><br>The outskirts of Ulan Bator are pretty horrid - garbage caught in fences, run-down looking houses and many, many gers. For the last couple of hours, I hung outside of the train window and tried to shoot pictures, but pulled myself back in for the entry into UB. We passed one railway construction crew who waved madly and yelled out, "hey, hello!!!!".<br><br ...

... far the hardest thing I have seen or hope to see really. There must be hundreds of homeless children that live in the sewers under the streets. They beg on the street and go into restaurants begging at tables until a waiter shoos them away. THe weird thing is, the biggest asset they have (their sad appearance and cuteness) are not used at all. These kids have the worst sales tactics i have ever seen. Once a little boy ran up to me ...

... had gotten myself into. I came in the last 2 days of the first session of kids so none of them new me so I was pretty much just invisible to them. On the third day we got the second session of children. They are slightly younger than the first but it has been much better cause I have had time to bond with them. There are 3 girls who speak english almost perfectly, better than my roomate if you ask me, but i'm not telling her that. They can speak with almost no accent ...